XCW Midwest Legends of the Garden 3/2/10

XCW MIDWEST ON SEGUNDA CAIDA

Knuckles and Knives v. Ted Trailer McNaler/Ricky Morton

TKG: Knucles and Knives come out in late 90s pop punk gear with white belts and black vests and guitars (with guitar straps with names on it). Trailer McNailer brings out Ricky Morton as his surprise partner. I didn’t have anything positive to say about Knuckles and Knives when I last saw them, but enjoyed Punch’s shtick (and he takes a crazy bombs away knee bump to nothing for a match this short) and Switchblade didn’t look as loose as I remembered him being. Morton looked pretty fast working opening section and hot tag. This was a lot of fun but too short to say much about.

PAS: I thought Morton looked like he was in good shape, and his execution looked good. This is a Ricky Morton tag match you wanted it to stretch out a bit, enjoy the journey. It doesn’t work nearly as well when it is cut short like this.

Real Deal Derrick Neal v. Simon Sezz

TKG: Last time we saw Derrick Neal work he was working undercard babyface. He works heel here and makes some really amusing pouting heel faces. Closer to Orndorf level pouting than Tatum pouting. He has some nice looking punches and this was fine outside of him having a bunch of really distractingly bad missed clotheslines for a guy who is using the missed clothesline a lot. I mean it wasn’t like he had just one way to throw a clothesline way over opponents head. He had a variety of ways to throw his arm out and make you go “Was that supposed to be a clothesline?”.

PAS: Yeah one of his missed clotheslines looked less like a clothesline and more like he tried to throw a fastball. Simon Sezz is pretty good at working generic babyface, although we saw less of his 2002 indy highflying and innovative offense then we normally do. I enjoyed Neal loading a boot for a basement dropkick which is an amusing 2010 variation of a old school spot.

Todd Morton v. Road Dogg

PAS: I was pretty excited about this match on paper. I have enjoyed some indy Road Dogg, and Todd Morton is pretty infallible. And for the three minutes we got it was pretty good. Still Road Dogg’s mike work was longer then the match

TKG: Yeah this was super short. Road Dog gets in his signature stuff and Bull Pain walks out to distract Morton for the rollup. This is the first XCW show where the sound is really clear on the DVD’s so we can make out all the mic work. But I’d rather see longer matches.

Dangerous Dougie Gilbert v Headliner Chris Michaels

TKG: This was being run face v face and both guys looked really good while it lasted and this really felt like it was building to go longer (with the announcer counting down time) then Michaels gets an out of nowhere pin.

PAS: Yeah this was also too short. Dougie looked really comfortable in there, and is a guy I would like to see them use more of. Still the finish of this really came out of left field. It felt less like a complete short match, then a long match which ended abruptly.

JD Maverick v Mitch Ryder

TKG: I have really disliked Maverick in the past. Last couple times I saw him I remember him working a real indy Shawn Michaels guy who did lots of elaborate self controlled bumps and flopping when he wasn’t being touched and then had really loose offense. He looked really good here. Mitch Ryder throws a series of nasty punches on Maverick in the corner where Maverick sells them standing and Maverick drops a knee really hard on Ryder and Maverick throws a bunch of mean looking strikes. Super fun fight in and out of ring which ends with Maverick slipping in to escape a ten count. Really satisfying finish that Mitch Ryder uses to set up a lumberjack match.

PAS: Yeah I thought Maverick looked really good here too. Maverick was simultaneously landing nasty punches and kicks and pulling off pussy heel. Ryder is one of the best in the world as these kind of around the arena brawls, and Maverick was right there with them.

Simon Dean v. Bull Pain

TKG: Wow Simon Dean has gotten fat. I mean he looks less like a personal trainer and more like a fat guy in sweats. And he works this entire match like he was a fat Jim Cornette. Chickenshit guy running and hiding from face, eating abuse, begging off and then getting a bunch of cheap shots in. He does one neckbreaker. Not a Novaesque pumphandle inverted neckbreaker. Just a neckbreaker. And this is the most I’ve enjoyed Nova ever. Bull Pain is a guy who is great at beating up a fat Andy Kauffman. The post match booking is reall fun and got me excited to see the follow up.

PAS: I am in shock at how much I enjoyed Simon Dean here. His pre match mike work was great, threatening to win a kids replica belt. Deciding that he wouldn’t have a title match because there was no ref, then punching the ref. He was also shockingly fun as Andy Kaufman, running, crying and cheap shotting. The whole match seemed to be setting up one thing and I liked how they did something else. A lot of time wrestling swerves sacrifice common sense for surprise, we were all expecting Chris Michaels to turn, but when Bull Pain turned instead it made sense. Plus I am amped to see Pain and Morton back together

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XCW Midwest Payback Time 10/17/09

Todd Morton v. The Real Deal Derrick Neal

TKG: It’s Todd Morton working a pretty straight opener . No heat garnering horseshit. I assume Derrick Neal is a trainee or something as this was laid out really well but Neal’s execution felt really rookie level.

PAS: Todd Morton is a tremendous wrestler, but we only got to see flashes of this here. I loved the spot where he backed Neal into the corner and mule kicked him low, and the payback spot out of the knuckle lock and bridge was cool too. Still Neal didn’t contribute much and we only got a page or two of the Morton playbook

New Age Assassin v. Platinum Chris Phoenix

PAS: Platinum Chris Phoenix (which is a god awful name) is a really thick guy who kind of looks and wrestles like an indy Brock Lesner. Assassin does a nice job bumping around for all of Phoenixes shoulder blocks and bodyslams, and sneaks in shots here and there. Phoenix was clearly pretty early in his training, but he hit a nasty finishing supelex and was an impressive specimen for indy wrestling. I think he would be pretty good as a Mitch Ryder tag partner to work the apron and come into hit big spots on the heels.

TKG: Yeah I dug this. New Age Assassin flies around for Chris Phoenix and then does the SNME face chases heel around ring till face is ambushed coming into ring. I really dug all of New Age Assassin’s cheap shot into offense moves as he never did anything that was unbelievable given the size difference, but when he was in control you totally bought him in control

Simon Sezz v. Jason Bradley

TKG: Last two matches had kind of bulky oiled up babyfaces. This one had Simon Sezz. And we are in workrate T-shirted indy wrestling territory here.I’ve really been digging Simon Sezz of late as he is a guy who works real 2002 Alex Shelley offense but works it into this really old school face/heel context without it coming off as either masturbatory moves or ironic winking. I’ve never seen Jason Bradley but he was fun as heavyset T-shirted heel vs skinny T shirted face, doing amusing stooge bumps and cutting Sezz off with big throws.

PAS: I am not sure whether Simon Sezz would stand out in Evolve, but having one guy do Evolvish offense in a fed like this kind of works. He really knows how to put 2000 ends offense in context. His fancy shit looks less Chris Sabin and more Skip Young.

Bull Pain v. Flash Flanagan

TKG: So I’ve really been enjoying title match Flash Flannigan as a guy who always has neat finishes done well. Here unfortunately the finish felt abrupt and semi blown. Everything up to the finish was amazing. Bull Pain is just a wrecking machine, and Flash is a guy who comes off tough for taking Pain’s stuff and waiting for his spots to crotch Pain against the ring post. I’ve seen lots of distract a ref spots and there is just something natural about Flash’s distract a ref spots where it feels less formula and more like the way you actually distract a cashier in a store before robbing them.

PAS: Bull Pain is one of the more believably violent guys in all of wrestling. I have seen a lot of great looking headbutts in my day, but Pain aims his forehead right at Flash’s temple and just looks debilitating. Flash fires back just as rough, and he is truly one of the best wrestlers I have ever seen at timing his comebacks, there is an awesome moment where he catches Pain with a DDT right as he is entering the ring and it is just perfectly done. It is too bad the finish was so awkward, because this was pretty close to a tremendous match

Mitch Ryder v. Chris Michaels

PAS: This was that tremendous match though. This was a feud ending falls count anywhere match, and was one of the times where XCW-Midwest reached the big time Memphis main event heights that they aim for. They start with a pretty great arena tour with both guys exchanging big shots and they climb up and down the bleachers. This is a fed full of guys with great looking right hands, but Michaels was winning the contests with some corkers. It slows down some in the middle with both guys bleeding and selling fatigue, and then they build again to a big time finish run with a bunch of spots around a steel chair. They weren’t using the chair innovatively, it was just an exclamation point to all of their shots. XCW is a fed with some questionable finishes to big matches, this finish felt like the ending of both a match and a feud. Great shit, and exactly why I watch this fed.

TKG: Yeah this was the match. This was a pretty fun card top to bottom. And this match on the top is not just the reason why you watch this fed, but pretty much the reason why you watch wrestling. They just go at it all over the arena with Ryder attacking Chris to start and then the bleacher tour with constant teases of big falls. The look on Ryder’s face when he realizes he has drawn first blood, looking at the blood on his hands and realizing where it came from, is great. The crowd is totally behind Ryder and you feel yourself chanting “Go Mitch Go” too. All of the nearfalls are really dramatic, with nothing feeling thrown away.

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